Climate Change
Climate change is a major public health crisis. NEJM and NEJM Group are committed to raising awareness of the effects of climate change on health conditions and medical care systems. This growing collection of articles and other resources is available to support physicians and other health care professionals.
Fossil-Fuel Pollution and Climate Change
NEJM Group publications — NEJM, NEJM Evidence, and NEJM Catalyst — present a series on fossil fuel–driven health harms and strategies to reduce risk.
A 56-year-old man was transferred to a burn center for management of pavement burns on his feet that had occurred during a heat wave.
A 65-year-old man presented with 1-day history of a rash with a bull’s-eye appearance on his left hip. One week earlier, he had removed a tick from his hip after doing yard work near the woods by his home in Tennessee.
A 3-year-old boy presented with a 6-week history of ulcerated plaques with rolled borders and satellite papules on his left lower leg. He had recently immigrated from Venezuela after a long journey by land with his family.
A new report from the National Academy of Medicine proposes a research agenda to address climate-related health risks and data gaps, emphasizing equity, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
As the fossil-fuel industry continues to obstruct efforts to curtail pollution from its products, the health community should use strategies that have been effective in fighting other health-harming industries.
With climate change, exposure to floods has increased and is linked to adverse health outcomes, such as injuries, diseases, and mental health harms, all of which are greater in vulnerable populations.
Wildfires are increasingly common and projected to worsen with climate change. Health consequences include burns and mental health effects, as well as risks from air pollutants in smoke. Cutting carbon emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2.0°C or 1.5°C above the preindustrial level would markedly reduce wildfire risks.
NEJM Climate Event
Fossil Fuel Pollution and Climate Change
November 16, 202312:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
- A 65-year-old man presented with 1-day history of a rash with a bull’s-eye appearance on his left hip. One week earlier, he had removed a tick from his hip after doing yard work near the woods by his home in Tennessee.
- A 56-year-old man was transferred to a burn center for management of pavement burns on his feet that had occurred during a heat wave.
- A 3-year-old boy presented with a 6-week history of ulcerated plaques with rolled borders and satellite papules on his left lower leg. He had recently immigrated from Venezuela after a long journey by land with his family.
- As the fossil-fuel industry continues to obstruct efforts to curtail pollution from its products, the health community should use strategies that have been effective in fighting other health-harming industries.
- A new report from the National Academy of Medicine proposes a research agenda to address climate-related health risks and data gaps, emphasizing equity, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Severing the long-standing ties and scientific collaborations between the United States and the WHO and slashing U.S. financial support will have catastrophic effects on both domestic and global health.
- As climate change exacerbates existing health disparities, a new curriculum arms residents to provide climate-informed patient care, advance climate advocacy, and improve health system sustainability.
- A 57-year-old woman presented with a 3-day history of altered mental status. Three weeks earlier, fever, weakness, cough, and diarrhea had developed, followed by intermittent visual hallucinations, tremors, and unsteadiness.
- Many inhalers that are vital for patients with asthma or COPD are associated with societal harms that can worsen the very diseases the products are designed to treat. How can this dilemma be resolved?
- With climate change, exposure to floods has increased and is linked to adverse health outcomes, such as injuries, diseases, and mental health harms, all of which are greater in vulnerable populations.
- C. auris, a serious public health threat that may have emerged because of climate change, persists on human skin and inanimate objects, frequently causing difficult-to-control outbreaks in health care facilities.
- In this crossover trial in older adults with or without coronary artery disease, cardiac strain was reduced with fan use, skin wetting, or both in hot and humid conditions but worsened with fan use in very hot and dry conditions.
- In June 2024, the Supreme Court issued an order halting implementation of a regulation intended to limit the interstate spread of ozone-forming emissions. The decision could endanger human health.
- Compromised wastewater infrastructure and water quality can cause both immediate and long-term harm to human health. The U.S. health care industry continues to contribute to environmental contamination.
- States and local governments have filed lawsuits alleging that oil companies have exacerbated the climate crisis. If broadly successful, such suits could help protect public health from related threats.
- Including carbon footprint as an end point in randomized, controlled trials could help clinicians, regulators, and policymakers understand the environmental effects of medical interventions.
- This Double Take video reviews the risk factors for acute heat-related illnesses, along with clinical features, complications, and management, and discusses preventive guidelines and measures.
- Increased global temperature is associated with a wide range of health risks, which are disproportionately high for certain populations. Individual- and population-level measures can reduce risks.
- At the recent COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai, participants from the health care and public health communities advocated for a focus on both health and phasing out of fossil fuels.
- Plastics have enabled extraordinary advances in virtually every area of medicine and have made our lives immeasurably more convenient. Multiple lines of evidence now indicate, however, that plastics are neither as safe nor as inexpensive as they seem. The benefits of plastics come at great and increasingly visible costs to...
